Appliances such as refrigerators and ovens typically include one or more shelves or racks for the support of food items and containers having food items. For example, oven appliances conventionally include one or more racks whereby multiple food items can be placed into the oven for cooking operations. In order to accommodate food items and cooking utensils of different sizes, a typical construction includes horizontal protrusions formed directly into the side walls of the oven cavity on which the racks can be slid in and out of the oven cavity. The racks and protrusions are designed so that the user can remove the rack from the protrusions at one vertical level and reinstall the rack at a different vertical level, which the user may select based on e.g., the height of the food items or utensils, the number of items being cooked, the type of food being cooked, and/or other factors. Refrigerators may have shelves that e.g., include tabs or hooks at the rear of the shelves. The shelves can be unhooked and moved to another vertical location.
Such conventional designs may present challenges to some users of these appliances, however. For example, some users may find the removal and reinstallation of the rack or shelf so as to adjust the vertical height to be cumbersome or difficult. Additionally, with oven appliances, the protrusions are commonly formed by stamping metal sheets to form the side walls of the oven cavity. The number of vertical levels may be limited to e.g., only four or five within the oven cavity. Thus, the amount of vertical adjustability can be quite limited and, therefore, unsatisfactory to some users. Similar problems can exist with shelving systems in refrigerator appliances.
Other systems have been proposed to provide vertical adjustability for the racks or shelves within an appliance. Typically, however, these constructions are also limited to fixed number of a relatively few locations at which the racks or shelves can be placed within the appliance. Some constructions may also be limited in the amount of weight that can be supported.
Accordingly, an appliance having vertically adjustable racks or shelves would be useful. An appliance also having features that allow for an increased selection of vertical locations to which the racks or shelves can be adjusted would also be useful. An appliance having one or more features to secure the vertical position of the racks or shelves would also be useful.